Klimt, Gustav

Childhood and Education

Gustav Klimt was born in the Viennese suburb of Baumgarten in the family of the engraving artist and jeweler Ernest Klimt, was the second of seven children - three boys and four girls ^[4] . Klimt's father was a native of Bohemia and a gold engraver, his mother, Anna Klimt, nee Finster, tried, but could not become a musician. Klimt spent most of his childhood in poverty, as the economic situation in the country was difficult and his parents did not have a permanent job. All three sons of Ernest Klimt became artists.

At first, Gustav learned to draw with his father, and then since 1876 - at the Vienna Art and Craft School at the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry (teachers Karl Grachovina , Ludwig Minnigerode , Michael Rieser ), which in 1877 was attended by his brother Ernst. Gustav Klimt studied there until 1883 and specialized in architectural painting. The model for him during this period was the artist of the historical genre Hans MacArth . Unlike many other young artists, Klimt agreed with the principles of conservative academic education. Since 1880, Gustav, his brother Ernst and their friend artist Franz Mach have worked together, frescoing theaters in Reichenberg , Rijeka and Karlovy Vary (cities of the Austro-Hungarian province). In 1885, they worked on the design of the Vienna Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum . In 1888, Klimt received an award from Emperor Franz Joseph - "Golden Cross" for his merits in art. He also became an honorary member of the Universities of Munich and Vienna .

In 1892, father and brother Ernst died, and financial responsibility for the family fell on Gustav. In addition, these events left an imprint on his artistic views, and soon he began to develop a deeply individual style. In the early 1890s, the artist met Emilia Flöge , who, despite his relationship with other women, remained his companion until the end of his days ^[5] .

Vienna Secession

Klimt in 1897 became one of the founders and president of the Vienna Secession and the magazine Ver Sacrum ( Holy Spring ), published by the group. He remained in the group until 1908. Initially, the objectives of the Secession were to organize exhibitions for young artists writing in an unusual style, to attract the best works of foreign artists to Vienna, and to popularize the work of group members by publishing a magazine ^[6] . The group did not have a manifesto , and it did not try to develop a single style: naturalists , realists and symbolists coexisted in it. The government supported their efforts and leased them a plot of urban land for the construction of an exhibition hall. The symbol of the group was Athena Pallas , a symbol of justice, wisdom and art.

Since the beginning of the 1890s, Klimt has been relaxing every year with the Flöge family on Lake Attersee and painted many landscapes there. The landscape genre was the only non-figurative painting that interested Klimt. Klimt’s landscapes are similar in style to his images of figures, they contain the same design elements. The Attersee landscapes are so successfully embedded in the plane of the canvas that it is sometimes assumed that Klimt examined them with a telescope ^[7] .

In 1894, Klimt received an order to create three paintings to decorate the ceiling of the large assembly hall of the main building of the University of Vienna on the Ringstrasse . The allegorical paintings "Philosophy", "Medicine" and "Jurisprudence", known as "faculty" , were completed by 1900. They were sharply criticized for the subject, which was called " pornographic ." Klimt transformed traditional allegories and symbols into a new language, with a greater emphasis on eroticism, and therefore more annoying to conservative viewers. Dissatisfaction was expressed by all circles - political, aesthetic and religious. As a result, the paintings were not exhibited in the main building of the university. This was the last public order that the artist agreed to fulfill. After this painting, the patron August Lederer acquired it. In the 1930s, Nazi authorities nationalized Klimt's Ledera collection of works. At the end of the war, these works were transferred to the Immerhof Palace , but in 1945, allied forces entered this area, and the retreating SS troops set fire to the castle. The paintings died. All that is available today is scattered preliminary sketches, black and white photographs of three paintings of poor quality, and one color photo of Gigeya from Medicine. Her sparkling gold and red colors give an idea of ​​how powerful these three lost works of art looked.

The painting “ Naked Truth ” ( 1899 ) Klimt continued to challenge the public. A naked red-haired woman holds a mirror of truth, above which is placed a quote from Schiller : “If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, few will like it.” To like many is evil. ” ^[eight]

In 1902, Klimt completed the Beethoven Frieze for the 14th exhibition of the Secession. The frieze was part of the monument to the composer and also contained a monumental painted sculpture by Max Klinger . The frieze was intended only for the exhibition and was made directly on the wall by unstable materials. After the exhibition, the frieze was preserved, although it was not exhibited any more until 1986.

The Golden Age

The "golden period" of Klimt's work is marked by a positive reaction of criticism and is the most successful for Klimt. The name of the period comes from the gilding used in many works of the artist, starting with the “ Palace of Athena ” ( 1898 ) and “ Judith ” (1901), but “ Kiss ” (1907-1908) is the most famous work of this period. The golden background and symbolism close to the Byzantine date back to the mosaics of Venice and Ravenna seen by Klimt while traveling in Italy. At the same time, he became interested in decorative art in the style of art nouveau . In 1904, he and a group of artists received an order for the decoration of the Stockle Palace , which belonged to the Belgian industrialist Adolf Stockle and became one of the most famous monuments of Art Nouveau . Klimt owns the details of the dining room decorations, which he himself attributed to his best decorative works ^[9] . Between 1907 and 1909, Klimt executed five portraits of women dressed in furs.

Klimt led a fairly simple lifestyle, worked in his own house, devoted all his time to painting (including the Secession movement) and his family, and was not on friendly terms with other artists. He was famous enough to receive many private orders, and had the opportunity to choose from them what was interesting to him. Like Roden , Klimt used mythology and allegory to disguise his deeply erotic nature, and his drawings often reveal a purely sexual interest in women. As a rule, his models agreed to pose in any arbitrarily erotic positions; many of them were prostitutes.

Klimt wrote very little about his vision of art or his methods. He did not keep a diary and sent postcards to Fleoga. In the commentary on the non-existent self-portrait, he states: “I never wrote self-portraits. I am much less interested in myself as a subject of the picture than other people, especially women ... There is nothing special in me. I am an artist who writes day after day from morning to night ... Whoever wants to know something about me ... should carefully consider my paintings. ” ^[10] .

Personal life

Gustav Klimt was never married, but he had numerous novels. Three to forty illegitimate children are credited with him ^[11] . For example, the Austrian filmmaker and cameraman Gustav Uchicki claimed that he was the son of Klimt.

According to biographers, in his longest and closest relationship with women, sex may have been absent altogether.

Klimt met Emilia Flöge in the early 1890s when her sister Helen married Ernst, the artist’s brother. After the death of Ernst, Helen returned to her parents' house with her daughter, whose guardian Gustav was appointed.

In 1904, the three Flege sisters founded a fashion house and became the leading Viennese couturier. Adapting Parisian fashion to local tastes and creating their own models, the sisters dressed the most elegant and wealthy women in Austria. Klimt contributed to the Flöge model and helped decorate the demonstration room.

Gradually, Emilia and Gustav became inseparable - at least in business. Many biographers and experts doubt that they had an affair. Emilia was proud of her modernity, in her personal life no one had given her a decree, and Klimt probably treated her as an equal person.

They were so close that the last words of Klimt, who was struck by a stroke, were: "Send for Emilia."

Recent years

In 1911, Klimt's painting “ Life and Death ” received a prize at the World Exhibition in Rome . In 1915, his mother died.

On February 6, 1918 , Gustav Klimt died of pneumonia in Vienna , having suffered a stroke before it. He was buried at the Hitzing Cemetery in Vienna. Many paintings remained unfinished.

As objects of the image, Klimt preferred women. If a man appears in his picture, his face is usually hidden or hidden.

For example, in Kiss, the artist’s most celebrated work, the man bent over the woman and his face turned away from the viewer when he pressed his lips to her cheek. The woman, bending her head at an unnatural right angle, seems to lose consciousness in his arms. Both figures, dressed in gold, are kneeling among the flowers.

Many contemporary critics, especially feminist art critics, criticize Klimt’s manner of portraying women as a passive object of male desire; they note that the man in Kiss dominates the woman who is forced to huddle with him in search of support.

Since 1910, Klimt began to move away from overloaded with decorative style. The second portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, painted in 1912, no longer contains extravagant gold; Klimt is now more important color: dressed in white, Adele is depicted against a background of blue, green and pink color spots. But Klimt did not have enough time to develop a new style - the First World War broke out , and on February 6, 1918 he died.

In 2006, the premiere of the film " Klimt " about the life of the artist, directed by Raul Ruiz , starring John Malkovich, took place . The film received the prize of the Federation of Film Clubs of Russia as the best film of the main competitive program of the XXVIII Moscow International Film Festival ^[12] .

In 2009, Austria hosted the premiere of the musical Gustav Klimt , in which Andre Bauer played the role of Klimt, and Sabine Naybersh played Emilia Flöge. From September 1 to October 7, 2012 the Vienna premiere of the musical took place.

The image of Klimt is also presented in the films Mahler on the Couch and The Bride of the Wind .

“Woman in Gold” is a 2015 film. The story of Maria Altmann, who is trying to achieve justice: to return the values ​​taken from her family by the Nazis several decades ago. Among the cultural heritage of the woman is the famous painting by Gustav Klimt “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer”, which is sometimes called “Golden Adele”.

• One hundred thirty-five million US dollars was paid at an auction in 2006 for the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer”, painted by Gustav Klimt in 1907 ^[13] .
• In the opening and closing compositions of the anime series Mamoru Kanbe “Elven Song”, the main characters of the series appear in front of the audience in a stylized form of Gustav Klimt’s paintings “Kiss”, “Hugs”, “Three Ages of a Woman”, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I”, “ Water Snakes I ”,“ Water Snakes II ”,“ Danae ”.
• In the children's animated series “ Mia and I, ” the character’s clothing design is inspired by Klimt’s paintings. A direct hint of the creators of the series is the picture “Kiss” in the main character’s room (Season 2)

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  Klimt in a bluish haze , Egon Schiele , 1913
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  Kiss 1907–08, oil on canvas, Belvedere Gallery , Vienna
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  Adele Bloch-Bauer I , sold for a record $ 135 million in 2006, Neue Galerie , New York
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  Adele Bloch-Bauer II, 1912 , property of Maria Altmann, Los Angeles
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  Ciao, Adele . Vienna, February 2006
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  Judith and the head of Holofernes , 1901. Austrian Gallery , Vienna
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  Judith II. 1901. Gallery of Modern Art, Venice
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  Athena Pallas. 1898. Vienna Historical Museum , Vienna
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  Beethoven Frieze Section, Secession House , Vienna
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  Goldfish. 1901-1902. Private collection, Switzerland
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  Hope I. 1903. National Gallery of Canada , Ottawa
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  Hope II (1907–08), Gallery of Modern Art, New York
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  Water Snakes I (1904-1907)
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  Water Snakes II (1904-1907)
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  Three ages of a woman . 1905. National Gallery of Modern Art . Rome
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  Danae . 1907-1908. Leopold Museum . Vein
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  Innocence, 1913. National Gallery . Prague
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  Girlfriends. 1916-1917 (Gallery Weltz, Salzburg ). Destroyed by fire in 1945
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  Philosophy of 1899–1907. Destroyed in 1945
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  Medicine 1899–1907. Destroyed in 1945
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  Jurisprudence 1899–1907. Destroyed in 1945
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  Adam and Eve . 1917 . Austrian Gallery , Vienna
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  Portrait of Sonya Knips, 1898
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  Portrait of Hermina Gaul , 1904. National Gallery , London
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  Mäda Gertrude Primavesi , 1912, (oil, canvas, 150 × 110 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York
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  Mäda Eugenia Primavesi (1913-14)
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  Alley in Schloss Kammer Park , 1912, Belvedere Gallery, Vienna
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  Birch Grove , 1903
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  Apple tree I , 1912
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  Houses in Unterach near Attersee , 1916
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  Masturbating Woman ( Masturbation ), 1916
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  Panel in the dining room of the Stockle Palace
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  Panel in the dining room of the Stockle Palace. Waiting , 1904-1910
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  Panel in the dining room of the Stockle Palace
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  Panel in the dining room of the Stockle Palace

• Gustav Klimt, 1862-1918 [Album] / Aut. text by J. Nere; Translated from English E. Kalmykova. - Cologne: Taschen, Art Rodnik, 2000.
• Gustav Klimt [Album] / Aut. text M. Kini. - M .: White City, 1998.
• Landy E. The Secret Life of Great Artists. - M. 2011. - ISBN 978-5-98697-228-2 . - S. 200-206.
• Gustav Klimt. - M .: Eksmo, 2012. - (Gift Editions. Masterpieces of graphics in exclusive design)
• Salfellner G. Klimt. The artist’s life in texts and illustrations. - Prague: Vitalis, 2018 .-- ISBN 978-3-89919-552-1 .

• Modern
• Secession

• All paintings by Gustav Klimt in high quality
• Gallery of paintings by Gustav Klimt
• Russian site about Gustav Klimt. Reproductions of paintings, full biography
• The site of the musical about Gustav Klimt (German) .
• Pankov S. The Secret of Immendorf Castle. The search for the missing paintings of Klimt // Radio Liberty , 12/29/2018.